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How to create a positive culture in your start-up

Creating and maintaining a positive culture in the early years of setting up a business is critical to whether the company will survive and prosper.

Here are three top tips for achieving this:

Don't blame outside circumstances

Blaming circumstances outside your control, such as a recession, government policy or cancelled orders, is disempowering. We give away our potential to adapt and close ourselves off from seeing new opportunities.

This happens at a subtle level but the results are real. It's far better ask yourself calmly: "With regard to (name the challenge) what do I need to learn from this situation?"

You may have to do this many times over but such self-inquiry helps release us from the prison in which we incarcerate ourselves when we blame circumstances outside our control. The answers you receive may not in themselves be the "big idea" you need to break through, but they will nudge you towards it.

Nurture your intuition

I believe the universe is constantly trying to guide us towards win-win solutions and the realisation of our full potential; and it speaks to us through our intuition. Unfortunately pressures at work, being hunched over a computer all day, not taking proper breaks and stress all tend to dull down our intuition.

When we consciously decide to recognise our intuition, it soon starts to communicate with us; by giving it space and focus, we can strengthen it.

You can nurture your own intuition by regularly absorbing yourself in activities that take you away from your routine thinking; it's about getting out of your head and into your body. You can do this through meditation, walking in open country, running, horse riding or dancing to music.

It’s about doing something regularly that you enjoy - whatever works best for you. When you feel relaxed and centred you make space for your intuition to come through.

Stay flexible

Often when we start in business we have one idea of how it should look and we think it's important to stick with it and push it through. Sometimes, however, it emerges that our market is somewhat different to what we first thought. If you are too attached to your original idea you could miss out on what you have been called to do.

Listening and being observant to what your customers say, following your intuition and being flexible around your offering is absolutely essential.